Three men and a nation: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul is not likely to trip on world affairs. He is a man of the world and is comfortable dealing with people outside India. He has a sense of Pakistan as a country not to be taken too seriously. He might stick with this and look to free India of its Pakistan obsession.

In the short term, he is likely to endear. Anything he shares of personal trauma will win over at least the women who understand what this must do to a home.

The challenge for Rahul Gandhi would be to deal with widespread scorn. He can’t avoid his Nehru-Gandhi background however much he downplays it.

Being fifth generation in a political dynasty brings its own impediments. Motilal and Jawaharlal Nehru had it best. The diminishing returns began from Indira Gandhi. Rajiv bore some of it and now Rahul has to.

And then, the Congress party has made far too many mistakes in allowing negative practices to continue. Much of the disdain for the Congress is targeted at Rahul.

But people are fickle. Public mood can change. We’ll know now, how Rahul manages it.

[Tomorrow: Nitish Kumar]

In Picture: A combo pictures shows Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in different moods during a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in Jaipur on January 20, 2013.

Vijay Simha is an independent journalist and sobriety campaigner based out of New Delhi. His most recent journalism assignment was as executive editor with The Financial World, New Delhi, and tehelka.com.

He was a guest on Season 1 of the popular Indian TV show Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Aamir Khan.